Mathematical Physics In One Dimension

Mathematical Physics in One Dimension: Exactly Soluble Models of Interacting Particles covers problems of mathematical physics with one-dimensional analogs. The book discusses classical statistical mechanics and phase transitions; the disordered chain of harmonic oscillators; and electron energy bands in ordered and disordered crystals. The text also describes the many-fermion problem; the theory of the interacting boson gas; the theory of the antiferromagnetic linear chains; and the time-dependent phenomena of many-body systems (i.e., classical or quantum-mechanical dynamics). Physicists and mathematicians will find the book invaluable.

This book differs from its predecessor, Lieb & Mattis Mathematical Physics in One Dimension, in a number of important ways. Classic discoveries which once had to be omitted owing to lack of space ? such as the seminal paper by Fermi, Pasta and Ulam on lack of ergodicity of the linear chain, or Bethe's original paper on the Bethe ansatz ? can now be incorporated. Many applications which did not even exist in 1966 (some of which were originally spawned by the publication of Lieb & Mattis) are newly included. Among these, this new book contains critical surveys of a number of important developments: the exact solution of the Hubbard model, the concept of spinons, the Haldane gap in magnetic spin-one chains, bosonization and fermionization, solitions and the approach to thermodynamic equilibrium, quantum statistical mechanics, localization of normal modes and eigenstates in disordered chains, and a number of other contemporary concerns.

In 1966, E.H. Lieb and D.C. r1attis published a book on "Mathematical Physics in One Dimension" [Academic Press, New York and London] which is much more than just a collection of reprints and which in fact marked the beginnings of the rapidly growing interest in one-dimensional problems and materials in the 1970's. In their Foreword, Lieb and r~attis made the observation that " ... there now exists a vast literature on this subject, albeit one which is not indexed under the topic "one dimension" in standard indexing journals and which is therefore hard to research ... ". Today, the situation is even worse, and we hope that these Proceedings will be a valuable guide to some of the main current areas of one-dimensional physics. From a theoretical point of view, one-dimensional problems have always been very attractive. Many non-trivial models are soluble in one dimension, while they are only approximately understood in three dimensions. Therefore, the corresponding exact solutions serve as a useful test of approximate ma thematical methods, and certain features of the one-dimensional solution re main relevant in higher dimensions. On the other hand, many important phe nomena are strongly enhanced, and many concepts show up especially clearly in one-dimensional or quasi -one-dimensional systems. Among them are the ef fects of fluctuations, of randomness, and of nonlinearity; a number of in teresting consequences are specific to one dimension.

This book presents the basics of mathematics that are needed for learning the physics of today. It describes briefly the theories of groups and operators, finite- and infinite-dimensional algebras, concepts of symmetry and supersymmetry, and then delineates their relations to theories of relativity and black holes, classical and quantum physics, electroweak fields and Yang-Mills. It concludes with a chapter on (the complex theory of) strings and superstrings and their link to black holes — an idea that fascinates both the physicist and the mathematician. Contents:Complex Functions, Riemann Surfaces and Two-Dimensional Conformal Field Theory (an Introduction)Elements of Group Theory and Group RepresentationsA Primer on OperatorsBasics of Algebras and Related ConceptsInfinite-Dimensional AlgebrasThe Role of Symmetry in Physics and MathematicsAll That's Super — An IntroductionGravitation, Relativity and Black HolesBasics of Quantum TheoryTheory of Yang–Mills and the Yang–Mills–Higgs MechanismStrings and Superstrings (Elementary Aspects) Readership: Upper level undergraduates, graduate students, lecturers and researchers in theoretical physics, mathematical physics, quantum physics and astrophysics as well as Yang-Mills and superstring theory.